{"id":27522,"date":"2024-04-02T14:18:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T19:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/?p=27522"},"modified":"2024-04-02T14:18:11","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T19:18:11","slug":"climates-of-inequality-display-showcases-history-professors-unfinished-project-in-milwaukee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/in-focus-2024\/climates-of-inequality-display-showcases-history-professors-unfinished-project-in-milwaukee\/","title":{"rendered":"“Climates of Inequality” display showcases history professor’s “Unfinished Project” in Milwaukee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Milwaukee\u2019s segregated citizens have been the victim of slow violence for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(Slow violence) is the kind of disaster that is so slow, so normalized, you don\u2019t think of it as violence. So you think that poor neighborhoods obviously have a lot of potholes and broken windows and boarded up houses and empty lots because they’re poor, right? But it\u2019s produced, and it\u2019s produced over a long period of policies,\u201d said 51ÁÔÆæ associate professor of history Arijit Sen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen has made it his life\u2019s work to not only document that violence, but also the ways in which the residents of the city\u2019s segregated neighborhoods are finding creative, hopeful ways to fight back, one block at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, his work will be part of a traveling national showcase that highlights how \u201cfrontline\u201d communities have borne the brunt of economic and climate disparities. The show, called \u201cClimates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice<\/a>,\u201d is a project by the Humanities Action Lab<\/a>, a network of universities that collaborate to produce community-curated public humanities projects about pressing social issues.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exhibit will be on display at the Milwaukee County Historical Society<\/a> April 8 through May 25. The show features the work of Sen\u2019s Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures (BLC) Field School<\/a>, which has been an active partner in Milwaukee neighborhoods like Sherman Park, Midtown, Washington Park, and other areas for more than a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s on display?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen smiles as he describes the event: The Historical Society has devoted most of its beautiful building to the exhibition. When visitors walk up the building\u2019s steps, the first thing they\u2019ll see is the \u201cClimates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice\u201d national exhibition. That display features a large screen describing what climates of inequalities are. The Historical Society building also has several alcoves, where there are more interactive displays highlighting environmental justice efforts in different cities across America, including Milwaukee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across the building is the local display, featuring work by Sen and his students in the BLC Field School, which he founded 12 years ago as public history project. In Field School, 51ÁÔÆæ students \u2013 many are drawn from architecture, English, history, and urban studies \u2013 are asked to tour neighborhoods, especially marginalized communities, and collect the stories of people who live there. The students use these oral histories as a starting point for creating podcasts, story maps, zines, and other materials to amplify their voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen has divided the work up into three categories to display: Food Justice, Housing Justice, and urban guardians. This local portion of the display is titled, \u201cThis Unfinished Project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Food Justice<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Many neighborhoods in Milwaukee are \u201cfood deserts,\u201d meaning that there are no dedicated grocery stores or places to buy fresh, healthy produce. There are convenience stores that offer quick, cheap, processed food, but it\u2019s hard to meet the body\u2019s nutrition needs with that kind of fare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To fight back, several neighborhood activists independently created community gardens, like the Cherry Street Garden that is highlighted in the exhibit. Not only do these gardens grow fresh food that feeds the residents nearby, they also create a safe space where Milwaukeeans can come together to pool their resources and work as part of something bigger than themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
    \"A
    A “community guardian” stands in front of the Cherry Street community garden. Photo courtesy of the BLC Field School.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWe don\u2019t want people to see a garden the same way again,\u201d Sen explained. \u201cWe can them to see the garden as ecology, as memory space, as labor, as resistance. \u2026 In each of these neighborhoods we work with we\u2019ve mostly been working with elder women, because they are the ones who are active as community guardians, transforming the neighborhood keeping it safe, bringing the kids together, and having intergenerational communication. One of the things we noticed is each of them had a community garden. \u2026 All these there were three different gardens we’ve worked with in the three different neighborhoods, and they all came together. And I stood there and I watched a set of gardeners who have never met each other suddenly exchange notes and figure out they’re right next to each other. That’s the nature of segregation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This area features pictures of the gardeners and their gardens, a redone garden bed, and also includes an enormous board showing 300 portraits with QR codes that links to interviews with those people on the BLC Field School\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Housing Justice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s easy to dismiss certain areas of Milwaukee as \u2018blighted.\u2019 Like many other urban centers across the country, it has a sordid history of redlining, racist housing covenants, and urban renewal projects<\/a> that came at the expense of the city\u2019s Black residents, in particular. The echoes of those policies are still felt today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Housing Justice portion of the exhibit tells the story of Milwaukee\u2019s Centerpiece neighborhood, said Sen, and \u201cthe people who are transforming it through rehab, intergenerational housing, sweat equity housing \u2013 they\u2019re strategies by which housing has become a tool to fight injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here, there are five listening stations where guests can hear two podcasts and four interviews with \u201ccommunity guardians\u201d who are leading housing justice movements. There is also a game to help people understand gender and use of space \u2013 how houses are places of identity, rather than inert spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Urban Guardians<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For years, Sen and his students have collected stories and recorded histories from the people who live in the neighborhoods where the BLC Field School has worked. This portion of the exhibit display those biographies, covering the lives of everyday people from Sherman Park, Washington Park, Midtown, and Martin Drive E., all of whom are doing extraordinary work in an effort to protect their communities and help them thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When visitors to the exhibit view these displays, Sen hopes it will make them think about their own roles in the \u201cunfinished work\u201d that is building America. The phrase is drawn from Lincoln\u2019s Gettysburg address, and charges each generation to grow their nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cWhat role can you play? Don\u2019t just tell stories, don\u2019t just hear stories, but bring people together around storytelling to make them act in unison,\u201d Sen said. \u201cThat has been my motto for a long time: Making history do work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Programming above and beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Undertaking such an exhibit is a big job by itself, but Sen has even greater ambitions. Thanks to generous funding from 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, he\u2019s also planned a series of programs to coincide with \u201cClimates of Inequality.\u201d They are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n